the only. u.s. congress votes to pull the economy from the brink of sliding back into recession by brooding a bill that prevents the country going over the fiscal cliff. amid mass conversion to islam and the u.k.'s official religion facing extinction some experts question whether it's time for britain to become a secular state. and with a shaky cease fire with his wrong place palestinian farmers in gaza have moved from land to roof hoping for a safer place to grow their projects near the front line. but

a study out of moscow you're watching r.t. . the u.s. house of representatives has approved a kind of virtual bill designed to prevent the country from potentially sliding back into recession the fiscal cliff deal passed earlier by the senate will prevent nationwide tax hikes and spending cuts from coming into force at least for the time being the house republicans want to to man the bill but then decided they didn't have enough support to make last minute changes to the motion a tug of war over the text revolves around a democrat promoted increase in income tax for the rich for the first time in two decades but now with lawrence freeman says that is a long run this bill won't make alive and easier for millions of struggling americans why don't in any way this whole operation has been

a manipulation. in the forest to work over the minds of the american population be great you know nothing in the proposal that any way shape or form will actually help the economy what we're seeing right now is government twenty seven people on board a missing boy here forty nine point seven million people live in poverty you have tens of people going where the mines gave food so this question of the physical harm in the well for the population is not good at all for nothing it's going to be gone we're going to grow aggressively to change the whole system so that with the regime of the banks and i will be there obama will not be good people because it will compress that much that you may be saying wealthy people i don't find that to be it's an incredible tax. i think. what kind of

credit even though make available for the best interest in job. building new york city in providing people with jobs so they can be a money maker family those who would use your question dear. hand in hand to the british monarchy the church of england has been a symbol of the u.k. for centuries and while the church still enjoys mannie unique political and financial privileges its current state is less than secure as are probably boyko found. one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world with one official state religion to some it's a paradox i think any institute any faith institution like the church of england is going to have some potential threats on the horizon and those threats on the horizon are basically around its relevance to communities in general other faiths

are significantly growing in their not only population but their voice in a social and political level so it's really important to have a plurality of opinion rather than just focus on one institution as being reflective of the nation yet the national church has twenty six years on the elected members in the house of lords the upper house of britain's parliament and it enjoys financial privileges courtesy of the u.k. taxpayer by the church's own admission the number of people coming through the doors of this and every other church in england has harvard over the past forty years the very same report even warns that in the longer term the established religion faces fading away to virtual embellishments twenty anglican churches just like this one being closed down for worship each year entrepreneurial property developers a snapping them up and converting them to luxury housing or even light clubs while

the number of church goers in the u.k. continues to fall some one hundred thousand britons have converted to islam over the past decade three quarters of those white women as you know broaden my knowledge about islam and compared with christianity i must tell you i found a more logical you know i just resonates with me i like what the prince of wales but he wants to be if ever he becomes king he wants to be the leader of faith you know of all faiths that i think is a wonderful statement because certainly our society here in britain is very multi-core. very multi-faith so everybody should be included while other faiths enjoy popularity the church of england's recent rejection of women bishops and disapproval of gay marriage has reignited the age old debate on the separation of church and state people feel alienated if they're not part of that church and so few people are because only two percent go to church on

a normal sunday so that's why we must i think make sure that the church is disestablished in the twenty six bishops that votes in the house of lords the only country in the world to have a parliament where they have the right to do that should be extinguished britain now has one of the lowest rates of church attendance in europe there is a rule. in terms of religious opinions there is and that will grow and that future may actually become wider as time goes on and so i guess what we have today is is the church effectively being relevant to certain parts of this country despite centuries of tradition some question what will be left of the church of england in fifty years time oh the statistics are very clear very clear almost disappeared with something i think the twenty fifty

figures are one hundred thousand people in the pews on an average sunday out of a population of sixty million that's miniscule but the privileges and political influence afforded to it are far from trivial and that's what's fuelling the cause of those who say that it's fairer to separate the church from the state party boy r t london. whether israel easing restrictions to allow building materials into gaza the nation's blockade of the strip still affects those who live there one who are bearing the brunt of the restriction are farmers many of whom had to leave their land and the buffer zones to grow food on the rooftops but as policy reports with the recent assault on gaza still fresh in the memory some fear they may not see their next harvest there's not a lot of greenery in gaza at least not in the places you'd expect to find it like

abu hafs times farm which since the israel gaza war four years ago has laid barren and deserted and diminished and looked yet again or had a very nice plantation a lot of visitors came to see it all sue students from the farming school used to come and study at my place and had to go in there but what could from israel raining down on one of the most densely populated spots on earth meant to have needed to find another place where he could grow his crops and so he looked towards his own home and puts that. i needed an old senate seat so i made this plantation on the roof and started working again. creates a lot of things yes time and energy i can make fifty thousand suppling from these simonson meters on the roof ship. it's an idea that's taken root in farms along the gaza israel border where much of the agriculture has been repeatedly destroyed by the israeli army many farmers are unable to access their land because of the buffer

zone that's one of those at least a third of gaza's farm land your. today there is no space to have a farm in gaza it is very crowded everybody is building new houses where i stand now used to be a plantation for oranges and lemons and if you look at it now you just see buildings. fall out of five people in gaza are dependent on food aid homegrown food projects like rooftop gardens can help combat malnutrition and severe poverty by allowing farmers to sell their produce marry any woman can do it i work with my husband and my daughters till midnight a lot of farming should be on the ground but we heard that we can plant in volcanic rock on our roofs so i tried it. farmers grow wheat and a variety of fruits and nuts on these rooftops they also raise rabbits and chickens showing how the little ingenuity can go a long way ask anyone in israel and gaza whether they think the situation is stable

and they'll tell you it's only a matter of time before the next israel gaza showdown they might be a cease fire in place between the two sides but no one believes it will hold least of all the gaza farm is always the first in the line of fire. on the israel gaza border. while some have they are lying he would say in the firing line others have their own life prospects in a limbo. it's a disease that i understand can kill you. in a few minutes we find out how some veterans of the nine hundred sixty sexual revolution in california deal with the threat of hepatitis c. and why health officials there are ringing alarm bells over it all this after a short break stay with us.

soon which will brighten if you move a song from tongues to perdition it's. nice for a start on t.v. don't. you know sometimes you see a story. and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't. charge was

a big. welcome back you're watching are you going to live from moscow island has taken on the six month presidency of the european council marking forty years of its membership prime minister and a canny has pledged to bring the republics vast experience of coping with financial difficulties to the table while focusing on the economic recovery alice robert oulds earlier told my colleague carrie johnson may prove to be a tough task for the celtic tiger one of the key challenges facing many countries in europe is of course the economic difficulties. is of course rigidly sticking to the austerity drive which the european union wants which its mandate to do it's effectively running its budget policies in many different areas amount of money

that it can be constrained to deal with the deficit but of course medicine that they're taking and partly suffering from but they're getting on with it isn't really bad for the rest of us so if they're going to be widely forward the agenda in the european union for the next six months that's not the. economic problems but let me ask you this i mean this coming year twenty thirty you know the e.u. has come up with something called the european year of citizens to be highlight the rights people have because they're in the e.u. what do you make of that. one of the key votes that people should have is a via to elect their own governments and for that to actually make a real difference but of course with the european union power has become too centralized amongst the institutions in brussels and that just takes away power from ordinary citizens so the european union can tell us why it's that we have but of course we don't actually have the vite to make a real difference to the elections because far too many decisions now are made at

the supranational level made decisions being made in brussels away from the citizens whether they be the citizens of violent or britain or spain or greece for that matter ok about what you would like but where would you be restored but were there any success stories in twenty twelve must have been something even after all the countries predicted to have collapsed by now are still surviving well course unemployment continues to go up and that for the states within the euro zone that's very alarming and that their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognize that the euro the single currency is the carbon c for these countries really we need to have a back of powers away from brussels to all the different member states and of course britain should of course have its own referendum on our membership as well and have our own say but it needs to be recognised that the european union is of course failing economically so it still is still there it still exists but the price of people are paying is of course no economic growth and of course massively

high unemployment which is now reaching alarming proportions for many different eurozone states. and i was to go get some of the stories from around the world in syria fresh findings been ordered between us i boil list and rebels in the second city of aleppo and in the capital aleppo national airport is under militancy while insurgent positions in the suburbs of damascus are reportedly being shelled this comes after anti-government activists claim dozens of bodies bearing signs of torture were discovered in the capital it's not clear who is responsible for the alleged atrocity the violence continues despite a stark warning from the top international peace envoy to syria who says the country faces a choice of political protest or help. authorities in ivory coast have declared three days of mourning after a stampede during new year's celebrations claimed the lives of over sixty people the tragedy occurred when a large crowd was leaving the city stadium after a fireworks show a similar incident happened in goa during new year's festivities ten dad and one

hundred twenty injured. at least four people have been killed and dozens wounded after an explosion in a crowded area of pakistan southern city of karachi police say the bomb was planted on a motorbike and detonated when a political rally of the city's dominant party passed by no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the liberal party but police suspect militants might have targeted the rally prior to upcoming general elections. but as well as leader which obvious is conscious following cancer operation in cuba that's according to the country's vice president nicolas maduro however stressed the president's condition remains delicate it was earlier reported that chavez was suffering complications caused by a respiratory infection under the constitution the socialist president is due to be sworn in for third term on january the town's. we dubbed the

silent killer health officials in the u.s. are calling for all baby boomers to be checked for have a tie to see a disease that's becoming increasingly prevalent for the age group as artie's movie the cogito in our reports fifty years on manny in california are paying a high price for their summer of love. i. california the sunshine state ones the center of the hippie revolution a melting pot of music rock spouse actual freedom we did drugs that we do think about there is no thought process because everybody was doing their deen may choose a baby boomer born during the pos world war two years nineteen forty six and nine hundred sixty five his generation now is paying for that lifestyle

a life of things drugs and rock'n'roll all fueled by flower power and the summer of love they say few remember the sixty's you were intrigued there the baby boomers out of the sexual revolution may have lost some of their memories and they had the mists of time but there is one legacy of their past which is anything but harmless the centers for disease control has already named him patatas c s n and recognized health crisis according to their granny station car and he won in thirty baby boomers are in fact it with the virus the silent killer it can lie dormant for decades that's what happened to dean mitchell's friend who died just two months after being diagnosed with the disease they're paying for the car consequences because there are now so they have to get medication. and it's a disease that i understand can kill you and worst of all it's not just baby boomers who are interests many could have a knowing g.

contract with the virus through blood transfusions screening was on unproven theory the aids crisis in the ninety's californians bay area has been the hardest hit with more people dying here than anywhere else in the country it is also a very costly problem for the bankrupt state costing billions of dollars last year the number of people where. they are all four of them. with. very. poor english minister. who are working personal things inside. it or their. initial. caring for more widespread than h i v have to type kills around twelve thousand people in the us after a year and with the baby boomers in the highest risk group the center for disease

control has called for mass screening they say they could identify almost a million people now living with the disease and save many more lives but the question remains if the present generation will listen my to the question archie reporting from los angeles california. while our website following the brutal gang rape that should delhi to the core hundreds of indian women apply for firearm licenses and join self-defense classes. plus a report reveals a number of japanese nuclear plants are ill equipped to deal with fires threatening to send back the reactivation of a country's nuclear stations by years log on to our state of calm to fight. more. space has fascinated generations of scientific mystery but have you ever considered going into orbit for your next holiday well it appears manic people have an early

r.t. talk to eric anderson a space entrepreneur about a part that private orbital travel has played space exploration for injury is on air at six forty five pm g.m.t. but here's a quick preview space tourism honestly is not a great word for what these people do when they participate as private citizens going to the space station every single one of them who's flown with space adventures to the space station has had an in-depth scientific program whether it was material science or biological experiments or whatever it was they have participated they have paid their own way of course they have used themselves as part of the scientific community that many of them have gone to space with less than perfect health and have been great examples of how for example laser surgery on your eyes is affected by space flight they all want to participate in this they

are participating and the fact of the matter is quite honestly when private citizens go to the space station a lot more people hear about the space station than otherwise it's just one of those things that they captures the public's attention part of nasa is mission is to encourage to the maximum extent possible the commercial use of space and in fact showing that there's a market showing that there are people willing to do this and showing that you don't have to be a career military fighter pilot the right stuff kind of person that plays a huge role and i think that's exactly the sort of thing that ends up helping the space agencies of the world as well. russian politics aside kremlin return for vladimir putin and fresh and eye government protests in two thousand and twelve although and numbers smaller than the year before our chief political analyst watch developments in the heart of the rallies and he told my colleagues came and i went and he said now we are all here

how he sees the protests mood in russia panning out. i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces and if pussy riot is that we are of the opposition that's pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there's there was political change in this country in a positive change. the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there and then there are people there ok and it's your right to demonstrate i actually like the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like by the mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method

if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in the years and years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes with countries that were what they were tearing at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there's some people who want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of down now oh i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest in but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work ok they want to go out and wave a flag and say you know give out

a slogan we don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do. you know about what has been decided by selecting russian and global politics in these crosstalk series throughout the past twelve months and r.t. dot com has plenty of editions of the show for you to watch on demand. coming up in just a few minutes the latest rout of heated debates in crossed up with get o.b.l. stay with us. as his day starts at five am even earlier in the winter tending to his flock of story hundred sheep in the mountains and plains of t.v. thirty five years old it wasn't the life he jumped off having studied accounting but he dition unfamiliar duty dictated that he would take on the care of these

animals after his father has just made camp at their winter fun stage setting up his ute judicial to fenian round tent made of diskin. his p.c. back amongst his family as his job is a lonely one and tough going out in all weathers braving streams of plus to minus forty degrees celsius just that arduous them there are certain difficulties there's not enough time for everything i'm almost alone and my sister works with my mother my mother is seventy five she's very old and you know i miss mountains when i'm in town i spend a lot of time here probably so on most of the us is simply carrying out the work that his father did and his father before him nothing has changed over many many centuries and that's half the problem it's hard work and many people don't want to come into in st now and it's really fit there could dial still together. there you things it's difficult to manage everything alone i used to have people who helped me but they were no good they didn't take care of the sheep with all their hearts

they hurt the cats or dogs that i was introduced with new people leaving than coming to the countryside the regions government is having to act making the life of the herd and more attractive than promising largest subsidies for i lie still and organizing cooperatives for the sale of day put out to ensure the herd i get so high a fair price i sympathize with those youngsters leaving for an easier more profitable life that is in their public's capital because the old so he no longer wishes to join them he enjoys his pastoral way of life now looking for a helper who shares his enthusiasm with more time in his hands he says matter of fact he can start to look for a new life. leave .

a low and welcome the cross-talk on peter lavelle out with the old and in with the new with the arrival of two thousand and thirteen what can we expect will the global economy continue on its slow pace of recovery or is there another crisis in the cards while western powers in israel finally decide to attack iran will the world come together to deal with extreme weather and will america see another horrific year of mass murders. across our predictions for two thousand and thirteen i'm joined by john glaser in washington he's an assistant editor and blogger for antiwar dot com in san francisco we have will durst he is a political comic and syndicated columnist and in paris we cross the analysts a bit more day she is a journalist and political commentator right cross talk rules in effect as usual john we were foreign policy expert do you see in your crystal ball an attack on

iran this year. i doubt it you know we came very close i think in twenty eleven in two thousand and twelve to a war in iran the israelis were pressuring washington pretty hard for you know a first strike but the obama administration as much as i have to criticize them for really they. engaged in a diplomatic offensive to reiterate to people that number one the intelligence says iran is not producing nuclear weapons they have no nuclear weapon program and to that that you know a war on iran would really be both ineffective and counterproductive because in less we change the regime and you know have another war like iraq in afghanistan probably combined. they'll that'll just mote motivate the iranians to actually start building a bomb.